The basic process of marketing Research

1. The Marketing Research Process
Presented by – Sandip Nayak

2.  Many big companies have their own
marketing research wings; others hire
specialized research firms.
 Big corporate organisations often allocate up
to 1% or 2% of the company sales budget for
market research.

3. STEP - 1
 Define the problem, decision alternatives, and research
objectives
 A very broad definition – excessive wastage of resources
 A very narrow decision – inadequate data of information
required for an effective decision
 It should have –
 What is to be researched (content, scope)
 What is it to be researched (the decisions to be made)
 Working backward can be a good way

4. STEP - 2
Developing the most efficient plan for gathering
required information
 Involves decisions on data sources, research
approaches, research instruments, sampling plan,
and contact methods
 Data Sources
 Secondary data, primary data, or both
 Also to see if secondary are not outdated, and
whether it can solve the problem, at least partly

5. Research Approaches
Primary data can be collected in five ways:
 Observational Research
 Focus Group Research
 Survey Research
 Behavioural Research
 Experimental Research

6. Research Instruments
Three main instruments for collecting primary
data:
 Questionnaires
 Qualitative Measures
 Technological Devices

7. Sampling Plan
Designing of sampling plan should follow decisions on
research approach and research instruments. It
calls for three decisions:
 Sampling unit – who should we survey
 Sample size – how many people to survey
 Sampling procedure – how should we choose the
respondents

8. Contact Methods
 Decision on how to contact the respondents
– by mail/courier, by telephone, in person, or
online

9. STEP - 3
Collect the information
 This is a very expensive activity, prone to error and
maintaining consistency is a big challenge
 Problems may be:
 Some respondents may not be available and need to
be contacted repeatedly
 A few will refuse to cooperate
 Many may give dishonest and biased answers
 Some will be biased and dishonest by nature

10. STEP – 4
Analyse the problem
 Extract findings by tabulating the data
 Statistical techniques and decision models
can be used to get additional findings

11. STEP – 5
 Present the findings
The researcher presents the relevant findings
of the research so that the management can
take major marketing decisions suitably

12. STEP - 6
Make the decision
 Findings of the research may only provide
additional information and insight to the
commissioning organisations/managers.
 Based on various factors, the marketing
managers take decisions on whether to use
it, discard it, or go for more research

13. Barriers to overcome while employing marketing
research
Many company may ultimately fails to use marketing
research sufficiently or correctly.
There can be various reasons >
 A narrow or insufficient conception of the research
 Insufficient or uneven calibre of researchers/agency
 Poor framing of the problem
 Time taking, late or erroneous findings
 Inter-organisational and presentational differences

14. Thank You !